One hundred forty-nine years ago, a baby boy was born on this date in Edinburgh, Scotland. Before his death July 7, 1930 at age 71, he would change the world with his writing.

“Come, Watson, come!” he cried. “The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!” — “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange”

While studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle started writing short stories and published his first fiction at age 20 in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal. Following his education, he waited for his patients to notice his setting up practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea, passing the time by writing. In Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887, Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet was the world’s introduction to Sherlock Holmes. Presumably modeled after his university professor, Joseph Bell, it’s also been said Holmes may have been closer to Edgar Allan Poe’s character, C. Auguste Dupin.

“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” — “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet”

Doyle’s adventures of Sherlock Holmes are well-known and his exploits are still read today, finding new fans in every generation. Holmes appeared in 56 short stories and four novels written by Doyle. Fourteen movies hit the silver screen between 1939 and 1946 starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson accordingly.

“Ever since I was a boy and first got acquainted with the great detective I wanted to be like him . . . to play such a character means as much to me as ten ‘Hamlets’!”

— Basil Rathbone, in a 1939 interview.

An organization dedicated to 221-B Baker Street where Holmes shared an apartment with his friend and co-hort, Dr. John Watson, and enthusiastic about everything Sherlockian is known as The Baker Street Irregulars. The name originates from Doyle’s characters deemed Holmes’ street urchins who scouted street information for the detective for pay. Proving Holmes popularity still reigns, in 2007, a British television movie starring Johnathan Price (Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars) is a family fare adventure dedicated to the Baker Street Irregulars. The fan club founded in 1934 has included Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Rex Stout and Isaac Asimov among their membership. The Baker Street Journal is published quarterly and according to their web site, www.bakerstreetjournal.com , has been in existence since its founding in 1946 by Edgar W. Smith. Their informal slogan is “Never before has so much been written by so many for so few.” The Baker Street Journal is a widely-respected source of scholarship about Sherlock Holmes.

It was nine o’clock at night upon the second of August — the most terrible August in the history of the world. One might have thought already that God’s curse hung heavy over a degenerate world, for there was an awesome hush and a feeling of vague expectancy in the sultry and stagnant air. The sun had long set, but one blood-red gash like an open wound lay low in the distant west. Above, the stars were shining brightly, and below, the lights of the shipping glimmered in the bay. The two famous Germans stood beside them, and they looked down upon the broad sweep of the beach at the foot of the great chalk cliff in which Von Bork, like some wandering eagle, had perched himself four years before. They stood with their heads close together, talking in low, confidential tones. From below the two glowing ends of their cigars might have been the smouldering eyes of some malignant fiend looking down in the darkness.” — from “His Last Bow”

The above is the opening paragraph to the short story concerning “An epilogue of Sherlock Holmes.” Notice the visual images Doyle paints with his wording choices. How could a reader not want to continue reading? This is a mark of a great writer. Another sampling from the same story shows how Doyle uses description sparingly, yet captures an image sharply in our mind’s eye allowing us to “see and hear” the character.

He was a huge man, the secretary, deep, broad, and tall, with a slow, heavy fashion of speech which had been his main asset in his political career.

Although the Sherlock Holmes films made from 1939-1946 hardly represented a true presentation of the characters in Doyle’s stories, personally, I can’t read the last three paragraphs in “The Last bow” without hearing and visualizing Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce just before closing credits roll.

“There’s an east wind coming, Watson.”

“I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.”

“Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared. Start her up, Watson, for it’s time that we were on our way. I have a check for five hundred pounds which should be cashed early, for the drawer is quite capable of stopping it if he can.”

8 comments

I was hooked very young on Sherlock and then Basil Rathbone. Not until Jeremy Brett, did I think anyone could consistently hold a candle to Rathbone.

Another famous actor was the American, William Gillette. Gillette is credited with introducing the curved meerschaum pipe and popularizing the deerstalker cap. It’s argued that Gilette and Sidney Paget inspired each other. I’d visited Gillette Castle (thanks to Pat and Floyd!), and as I read Deborah’s column, I found myself wondering what William Gillette sounded like.

I did a search and came across a recording fragment (parts one and two) of Gillette as Holmes at a time when Gillette was 82 years old (1936). His voice somewhat quavers, but it gives an idea of what Gillette must have sounded like on stage.

Enjoyed the article. Brings back memories of watching these movies with my mother on television. It beat cleaning my room! I like some of the modern day actors—Michael Caine and Christopher Plummer as well doing Sherlock.

And in 1965 the musical Baker Street played on Braodway for 311 performances. Fritz Weaver played Holmes, Peter Salis played Watson, Inga Swenson played Irene Adler (Awarded the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.) and Martin Gable played Moriarty.

I was fortunate enough to see it and I can still hum some of the songs. “What a Night this is Going to Be” and “Roof Space” come to mind, but the one I can still hear in my mind is a gravely Martin Gable singing “I shall miss you, Holmes, ” when he thinks he has bested the great detective. AS IF!

When I was doing my fact/spelling check for this comment, I was surprised to see that the part of one of the killers (there were several killers) was played by Tommy Tune and Christopher Walken and one or two others.

I lucked out on some tapes of the Boucher/Green-written Holmes radio show from the 1940’s. Rathbone is great in them but Nigel Bruce especially shines here, even better than in the movies! (Don’t forget Jeremy Brett!)Never to late to enjoy Doyle’s works in whatever media!

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